The effects of mind map and concept cartoon activities in science and technology education on students? academic achievement and inquiry learning skill perceptions

The unfavourable results achieved by Turkey in PISA 2003 and TIMSS 1999 studies led to curricular changes. In this context, curricula were reorganized on the basis of constructivist approach which is grounded in active participation of students and argues that they construct new information using their previous knowledge and experience. Constructivist approach particularly caused changes in curricular teaching methods and techniques. In recent years, along with this approach, there has been a considerable increase in the number of studies on the techniques, methods and tools that focus on students? active participation in class, are effective in identifying students? existing knowledge, misconceptions, and alternative conceptions, and allow students to construct new information on the basis of their previous knowledge. Two of such tools are mind maps and concept cartoons. In general terms, mind maps provide two-dimensional visual representations of the constructs and relationships in an individual?s mind and facilitate recall of information and relationships by allowing the use of right brain with the help of colours, pictures, images etc. Moreover, it could also be argued that mind maps provide feedback for teachers about how students associate information and whether such relations are accurate. Concept cartoons constitute another visual tool which has been studied much recently. Concept cartoons, in which different points of view and opinions about a phenomenon from daily life are represented by dialogues between cartoon characters, have been examined in research in terms of their uses in identifying misconceptions, attracting students? attention toward the course and securing their participation, identifying alternative points of view, and encouraging students to question phenomena. However, an examination of relevant literature reveals the limited number of the studies on these two visual aids. Furthermore, our examination showed no studies in the literature on the effectiveness of using both tools simultaneously. Hence, it is need to conduct the present study.This study aimed to investigate the effect of mind map and concept cartoon activities in science and technology education upon students? academic achievement and perception of inquiry learning skills. For this purpose, it employed quasi-experimental non-equivalent pretest posttest control group design, a quantitative research method. The study was conducted by selecting two groups, each one a class from two elementary schools in Demirci, a district in the city of Manisa. The study group consists of a total of 34 individuals, 17 in the experiment group and 17 in the control group. Experimental treatment was carried out for four weeks on ?Matter and Heat?, a unit in Science and Technology course, and the students in the experiment and control groups were administered the scale on the perceptions of inquiry learning skills and the academic achievement test as pretest and posttest. Before the treatment, no significant difference was found between the groups? mean ranks of academic achievement scores (Z=.417; p=.683>.05) and perceptions of inquiry learning skills (Z=.121; p=.919>.05) and thus, the groups were taken as equal in terms of relatively dependent variables. The results of the academic achievement test administered after the experimental treatment showed a significant difference between the groups? mean ranks in fovour of experimental group (Z=2.268; p=.024<.05), while the difference between their perceptions of inquiry learning skills was not at a significant level (Z=1.396; p=.170>.05). However, an examination of the groups? mean ranks revealed that the posttest perception of inquiry learning skills of the experiment group was higher than those of the control group. Furthermore, the study showed that there was a significant relationship between the posttest scores on perceptions of inquiry learning skills of the control group and their posttest academic achievement (r=.693; p=.002<.05); while this relationship was not found to be at a significant level in the experiment group (r=.385; p=.127>.05). On the basis of the interpretation of the study results, it is believed that activities based on using mind maps and concept cartoons in science and technology classes will help improving students? academic achievement and perceptions of inquiry learning skills.